The art of the deal is seen in Ginobili, Splitter accords

The new contract for Manu Ginobili made Spurs captain Tim Duncan happy.

The new contract for Manu Ginobili made Spurs captain Tim Duncan...

Tim Duncan could not imagine playing the final two seasons of his career without Manu Ginobili.

That was evident Wednesday morning when he responded to news that Ginobili had agreed to a new contract that will keep him on the Spurs for 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Giddy, he sent a text message that began simply and emphatically:

“YES!!!”

All caps and three exclamation points from the stone-faced, 37-year-old Spurs captain, who keeps his emotions hidden?

That should be enough to calm a segment of Spurs fans so shocked that Ginobili will be paid a reported $7 million per season that they took to Twitter to express their dismay.

Ginobili's return to the Spurs didn't leak out. He posted it to his 1.8 million followers less than 24 hours after general manager R.C. Buford agreed to give Tiago Splitter a four-year contract worth an average of $9 million per season.

The money in the two contracts confounded some basketball experts and added to the concern of fans.

Hadn't Ginobili's eight turnovers cost the Spurs dearly in the Game 6 loss to the Heat in the NBA Finals in which a fifth championship slipped through their hands in the final moments?

Wasn't Splitter little more than a spectator in Game 7, on the bench for all but four minutes?

Get beyond the emotions, and both deals make sense for basketball and salary-cap management reasons.

Splitter's interior defensive skills mesh perfectly with Duncan's and were a major factor in the team's resurgence to the upper echelon of NBA defenses.

Was $9 million a year too much?

“A lot of guys have been paid by the foot for a lot of years,” said one veteran basketball executive.

Ginobili's player efficiency rating (19.0) remains just below All-Star caliber, even at age 35. His assist share — he assists on 30 percent of the baskets made while in the game — is among the league's highest.

It's also important to understand that Ginobili is being rewarded for past loyalty and being underpaid for much of his career. He made only $2.8 million through his first two seasons. His first free-agent contract was relatively modest because he told the team that most aggressively tried to lure him away from the Spurs that he preferred to remain in San Antonio.

In 2004, Denver Nuggets officials were taken aback by such candor.

“He was completely up front about wanting to remain in San Antonio,” Denver's then-general manager Kiki Vandeweghe said some years later. “He said he owed it to his family to investigate potential offers but made it clear he really wanted to stay a Spur.”

Stay he did, and became the team's most popular player because his ultra-competitive nature always has been so evident.

Ultimately, the Splitter and Ginobili deals may be seen as shrewd roster management. A few hours after Ginobili's salary hit the Internet, some of the league's smartest basketball executives marveled at Buford's masterful manipulation of the rules that govern roster building.

“It's pretty clear what they're doing,” said one league executive who has been building rosters for most of the past 15 seasons. “With these two contracts, they're going to be just under the (projected salary) cap. Then they'll sign back Gary Neal, go just over the cap and, presto! They've qualified for the full mid-level cap exception, a little more than $5 million. That's going to make them a player for some good free agents who will be looking for jobs.”